Dems and GOP Square Off on Wall Street Reform, Other Issues Crowd the Calendar and More in Capital Eye Opener: April 26

Your daily dose of news and tidbits from the world of money in politics:

SHOWDOWN IN THE SENATE: A bill to overhaul the nation’s financial regulatory system is due for a pivotal test vote in the Senate this evening. Democrats need one Republican to vote in favor of the legislation to move the bill forward, to an up-or-down vote.

All eyes will be on the Senate Republicans, who are threatening to filibuster the measure if certain portions of the legislation are not changed. After weeks of fruitless discussions, Republicans maintained during the weekend that they will filibuster tonight’s vote; to carry out their threat, the entire Republican caucus will have to cast a “no” vote on legislation to reform Wall Street — an action that will have many Republicans nervous during an election season.

Not content to sit back and let lawmakers decide the fate of their industry, financial institutions are deploying their legions of lobbyists to Washington, to influence the legislation. The New York Timesreported lobbyists from investment banks last week stormed the Senate Agricultural Committee as it performed a markup on a part of the legislation sponsored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.). Democrats announced this morning, however, that they are coalescing around tough language that will heavily regulate derivatives trading.

Institutions from the finance, insurance and real estate sector have contributed vast amounts of money to the coffers of both Republicans and Democrats in the 2010 election cycle. According to Center research, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), the bill’s sponsor who isn’t even running for re-election, received $1,222,688. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has called for tonight’s vote, has taken slightly more so far, and stands at $1,266,717.

On the Republican side, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a chief negotiator for the party, has recorded $896,738 from the sector, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is leading his party’s opposition to the legislation in its current form, is on record for having received $176,925.

President Barack Obama, who made a major speech on Wall Street reform in New York City last week, is also taking flak for his record with Wall Street. During his campaign for the presidency, Obama received $39,663,073 from the finance, insurance and real estate sector, including $996,595 from beleaguered investment giant Goldman Sachs, whose purported bad behavior has become a rallying call for Democrats on the issue.

WHAT ELSE? If you’re not content to sit back and watch the fight over Wall Street unfold, there’s plenty of speculation over what other, major and divisive reform issue the Democrats will tackle in this compressed legislative session.

Legislation to overhaul the nation’s immigration system has been duking it out with supporters of a cap-and-trade bill to tackle climate change for the next top spot on the legislative calendar. That fight appears to be taking a turn in immigration’s favor. Advocates turned up the heat over weekend after Arizona enacted the nation’s most restrictive state-level immigration legislation, and the Democratic leadership has signaled its preference with moving forward with the legislation over climate change. Things may have changed over the weekend, however, after Sen. Lindsey Graham, a lead negotiator with Democrats on both bills, removed himself from the climate change bill in protest of the decision, leaving that legislation without a key Republican sponsor.

CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE POLITICS, IN THE NEWS: As the battle for Wall Street reform heats up, the Center continues to provide the media with information about key political players and lobbyists working on the issue. Reporters citing our work on the issue this weekend include Fredreka Schouten of USA Today, Damian Paletta and Scott Patterson of the Wall Street Journal, Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press, Edward Mason of the Boston Herald, David Lightman of McClatchy Newspapers and Ed Hornick of CNN. Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post also cited the Center in his column about the reform effort.

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